When I first began taking coffee seriously in Japan, back in 1981, Blue
Mountain coffee, from Jamaica, was considered to be the best. It was certainly
the most expensive, at about ¥1200 per 200 grams, at a time when the
average price of standard coffee was about half that. Blue Mountain coffee
was mild, with a very clean, bright taste.

Over the next few years, however, the Blue Mountain coffee I was buying
seemed to be less and less appealing, tasting more and more like the more
ordinary (and much cheaper) coffees, until I eventually decided that it
wasn't worth the high price and stopped buying it.

Later,I heard rumors that Japan was selling annually 900% of the total
Blue Mountain crop! Later still, I heard that Japanese coffee companies
had virtually bought the entire mountain upon which its namesake coffee
was grown, and had expanded the once limited areas on the mountain that
produced Blue Mountain coffee.

Today, the vast majority of the Blue Mountain coffee crop is sold in
Japan. And its taste is no longer special.